Philip Carroll

Philip Carroll, the "former chief executive of the US division of Royal Dutch/Shell," was selected in April 2003 by the Bush administration to serve as chairman and chief executive, along with a "15-strong board of international advisers," to oversee the reconstruction of Iraq's post-war oil industry. 

In the fall of 2002, Carroll says, "he began working for the Pentagon, developing contingency plans for Iraq's oil sector in the event of war. He assumed his work was completed, he said, until Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called him shortly after the U.S.-led invasion began and offered him the oil adviser's job." 

Biographical Profile
"Carroll served as president and CEO of Shell Group's US operations from 1993 until 1998. He began his career with Shell in 1961 as a petroleum engineer. Over the years, he held a number of titles with Shell's exploration and production business, and in the mid-1980s was named managing director of Shell International Gas/International Petroleum in London.

"After retiring from Shell in 1998, Carroll became chairman and CEO of Fluor Corporation, a large California-based engineering and construction firm that is vying for a huge contract with the federal government to rebuild Iraq's roads, bridges, hospitals, schools and other non-oil-related facilities after the war. While at Fluor, Carroll oversaw construction of large petrochemical projects in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Carroll retired from Fluor" in 2002.

"While viewed as an elder statesman in the oil industry, Carroll is less well-known in Washington circles. Back in the early 1970s, Carroll served as director of the US Commerce Department's Energy Conservation Division and as executive director of the National Industrial Energy Council." 

Shell in Nigeria
"Mr. Carroll, who headed Shell through the 1990 [sic], oversaw the company's Nigeria operations during the dictatorship of Sani Abacha, a time of massive political upheaval. ... Shell was, and continues to be, the largest oil producer in Nigeria."

"Carroll was CEO of Shell Oil throughout this period and his company regularly collaborated with the Nigerian military during the uprising, according to Human Rights Watch. Shell admitted to having made direct payments to Nigerian security forces and importing arms used by the Nigerian police. In fact, the company continues to have its own police force known by people in the region as the 'Shell Police,' and that force continues to be linked to civilian deaths in the area.

"The Bush Administration claims it wants to ensure that the sale of Iraqi oil benefits the Iraqi people. If this is true, the man tapped to lead the revival of Iraqi oil industry, is not the right person for the job. Carroll led a corporation that collaborated with the brutal Nigerian military under Abacha and did nothing to ensure that the population benefited from the company's presence. To this day, Shell has failed to successfully clean up the damage left behind on Ogoniland from production operations abandoned in 1993. The Nigerian population as a whole suffers tremendous poverty in a country that lacks a functioning infrastructure, despite having in the world's sixth largest oil producing capacity.

"Is this the legacy the Bush Administration plans on leaving in Iraq?

"It is the legacy left by Shell Oil Company under Carroll." 

SourceWatch Resources

 * Oil and War in Iraq
 * Oil and War in Iraq: External Links
 * reconstruction of Iraq